Sky HD

Sky HD is the name given to BsykB's satellite HDTV broadcast service. The service requires a new High-Definition set-top box to decode the broadcast signal attached to an HD capable television, and a Sky HD subscription.

Channels Available

Below is a list of channels currently available (as of Jan 2008):

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What does it cost?

Sky HD Box

Sky BD boxes are available from £169 depending on the subscription and any existing Sky products you may already have, up to £399 without a subscription.

Subscription to the service costs £10 per month and there is an additional one time set-up fee of £30.

The selection of the available HD channels you will receive with depend on the regular subscription package you have with Sky. To receive Sports HD you need to be a subscriber to the Sky Sports Mix package, and similarly a Sky Movies Mix subscription allows access to Sky Movies HD.

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Technical Details

Sky's HD service is broadcast using the 1080i format which can be scaled down by the decoder to 720p if desired. The output is via and HDCP complaint HDMI connection or via analogue composite. Individual broadcasters have the option to require the use of HDCP and so disable the composite output on a per channel basis, although at present this facility is currently unused.

Sky advertises 5000+ hours of high-definition programming each month, however a proportion of this is upscaled standard definition content, with only BBC HD, the movie and documentary channels currently broadcasting exclusively HD material.

Sky HD Box Specifications

Video outputs: 1x HDMI, 2x SCART, 1x S-Video, 1x component (Y, Pb, Pr), 2x RF aerial (modulated)

Audio outputs: 1x digital optical, 2x analogue stereo phono

Other connections: Telephone (RJ11), RS-232 serial, 1x USB, 1x Ethernet (RJ45), 1x SATA

Storage: 300GB (160GB user storage, rest used for on demand services)

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